All Trees Bear Witness: Colonial Histories, Climate Breakdown, and Sonic Experiments in Silvic Storytelling (Film Screening & Discussion)

About this event

This event is free and open ot the public, but registration is required. This October 2 film screening and discussion will take place in Room HQ L01 in the Humanities Quadrangle (320 York Street, New Haven). All Trees Bear Witness: Colonial Histories, Climate Breakdown, and Sonic Experiments in Silvic Storytelling is a two-part program which explores narratives of colonialism and climate change through the biodata sonification of witness trees—woody subjects who have experienced significant events in history. The program recognizes trees as affective beings capable of communicating not only their aliveness, but also their experience of events that occur within and against their ecosystems across varying temporalities. All Trees Bear Witness approaches these silvic stories through artistic applications of biodata sonification. That is, through the use of specialized devices which translate the biological processes of an organism into sound. The novel approach presents humans with opportunities for deep listening engagement with the more-than-human and even for interspecies musicking. All Trees Bear Witness ultimately asks: if humans better comprehended what trees communicate about the roots of the accelerating climate crisis, would we listen? The program includes the premiere of musician-folklorist Daniel Bachman’s film, The Witness Tree; a discussion moderated by convener Tyler Mark Nelson with two multidisciplinary artists of Virginian roots—cultural worker Cliff Chambliss, III, and scientist Willow Gatewood; and an outdoor biodata sonification workshop led by Willow Gatewood inviting participants to listen to the life processes and storytelling of New Haven trees. The Friday evening portion of this event begins with the debut of Daniel Bachman’s film, The Witness Tree, a meditative investigation of the intersections of history, power, people, and place. He interviews sixteen trees within the historic boundaries of colonial Virginia, much like a folklorist…

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